Prayers

Prayer outline

Praying as Jesus prayed (and taught the first disciples) can be an outline that will serve you for a few minutes or a few hours. It offers a very helpful way of bringing a light structure which gives balance to a prayer meeting.

ACTS prayer template (based on Lord’s Prayer)

Adoration

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…
Jesus, You are seated in the heavenly places, having put all things under Your feet.

Confession

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Thanksgiving

Thank You for the Cross. Thank You for breaking the dominion of Satan.
Thank You for our new identity as sons and daughters of God the Father.

Supplication

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread…
Lead us not into temptation…
Deliver us from evil…

Bless those who lead and preach, those who participate, those who simply come.
Bless the old and the young

– families and singles

– the fit and those who need a healing touch

– the joyful and those who are burdened

–the energetic and the weary.

Bless this place to be a place of encounter with You.

Prayer starters

Prayer shield

Eph. 6:18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.

James 5:16 Pray for one another… the effective prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much.

For the fellowship

Father God, as I come to you humbly in Jesus, I bless this fellowship of Speen Church:

with hunger for more of Your truth and thirst for more of Your life and love through the Holy Spirit

with growing awareness of Your love which gives us security and leaves no room for fear

with the holy boldness of the Spirit which overcomes timidity

with spiritual discernment and clarity of Your call and purpose, against distractions and confusion

with revelation of Your well-fitted yoke and active partnership to lighten the load

with spiritual gifts and spiritual wisdom to be empowered to do Your work, Your way

with openness to Your Spirit and His work of shaping and moulding and encouraging us to grow as disciples.I bless all You are doing in Your church, its leaders and their families, the members and regular attenders and their families. I bless its vision and mission, its finances, and its community connections. I bless its meeting places and especially the Chapel as a central and anointed place of worship and prayer and angelic presence and protection..

I bless Your continual working and divine appointments in my friends, neighbours and community, that Jesus may be seen, known and honoured in our lives to reflect You more and more.

Come Lord Jesus! Send more workers into your harvest field – and may we be counted among them.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

For friends, neighbours, family

Father God, I thank You for Jesus, for the Cross and the resurrection, and for the Holy Spirit’s gentle persistence in calling me into new life in Him, and growing me in it.

I bless today my friends, family, colleagues and neighbours to come to know You and enter into that new life and personal relationship with You. I bring them before You and bless them with salvation, agreeing that it is Your clear desire that they are saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:4)

Wherever the enemy has found grounds to conceal the gospel and blind them spiritually I speak release over them in the power of the blood of Jesus and I declare the grace of His sacrifice for them in the reality of the Cross.

I bless all You are doing in their thoughts, lives and situations. I bless them with growing revelation of who Jesus is. and why that is a personal truth for them.

I declare over them the name and salvation of Jesus, the true light, to come into their lives and their world.

I bless them with Your love, the unconditional, covenant love that leaves no room for fears and anxieties. I bless them with peace whenever they make a move to turn towards You.

I bless them with spiritual hunger that makes them needy for the Bread of Life, and I bless them with a thirst that will draw them to find the Living Water.

I bless them with a holy dissatisfaction with the material and temporal comforts of life, that will compel them to find You, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I bless them with clarity to see beyond the confusing claims of philosophies and religions, to a relationship with You, as I put upon them the only name whereby they might be saved, the Saviour, Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray.

Here are some ‘crafted prayers’ and declarations that I use:

SPIRITUAL ARMOUR DECLARATION

Armour of God declaration based on Ephesians 6: 10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Father God, I depend on Your power and strength today and take my stand against the enemy’s schemes by putting on the spiritual armour of holy attitudes. I resolve to stand in the victory Jesus secured for me in shedding His blood in death on the Cross.

I put on an attitude of truth today like a belt to keep me together and secure me from being shamed. I set out to set my mind on the truth and to speak truth and declare truth prayerfully.

I secure the breastplate of righteousness given to me because I am identified with Jesus. I am privileged to wear His uniform and set out live up to it and to do what is right in His sight, guarding my heart from pride, corruption, or discouragement, but walking tall and free of low self-esteem.

I put on the readiness and peace of the Good News of Jesus like the best marching boots, ready to minister for Him in every situation and having a good grip to keep me upright in every slippery place along the length of today’s path.

I take up an attitude of faith like a tall shield, effective against all the taunts, fears and other ‘flaming arrows’ and missiles the enemy is always trying to shoot at me. I pledge my trust, Father, in Your purpose for me, Your provision and Your timing, knowing that You are utterly faithful and covenanted to me in Jesus.

Similarly I put on an attitude of salvation like a helmet, to protect my thought life from lies the enemy would try to put in there. I thank you that I am saved to eternal life through receiving Jesus as Saviour and Lord, secure in that but also receiving the ongoing salvation of wholeness and deliverance. I resolved to grow in the mind of Christ today and with the help of the Holy Spirit to take every thought captive and constrained to be obedient to Him.

I take up a stance of active offensive action today, ready with the sword of the Spirt which is my declaration of the Word the Spirit brings to mind. I believe the truth, walk in truth and speak out the truth in praise, knowing that this will not return to God empty but will accomplish His purposes and put the enemy to flight.

Fill me afresh, Father God, with the same Holy Spirit who empowered Your Son Jesus, the promised Helper and Encourager to enable me to make good these attitudes and intentions and so to walk closely with You.

To God be the glory!

Praise the Lord! I praise God in His sanctuary; I praise Him in His mighty heavens! I praise Him for His mighty deeds; I praise Him according to His excellent greatness!(from Psalm 150:1)

I choose to sing to the Lord, and to make a joyful noise to the Rock of my salvation! (from Psalm 95:1)

Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory!(Psalm 24:8-10)

Not to me, but to Your name I give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness!(from Psalm 115:1)

I declare that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.(from Hebrews 13:8)

“Bless the Lord,” I say to my my soul, “and forget not all His benefits.”(from Psalm 103:2)

You are holy, O God, and I enthrone You as Lord of my life on my praises. (from Psalm 22:3)

And I praise You, Father God, that You have not given me a spirit of fear but Your Holy Spirit, who ministers within me power and love and self-control. (from 2 Timothy 1:7)

I praise You for the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who teaches me truth and reminds me of the truth of what Jesus is saying about me. (from John 14:26)

I praise You that as Jesus said, with man things may be impossible, but all things are possible with God. (from Mark 10:27)

I praise You that You open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. (from Psalm 118:19ff).

Declaration against anxiety

Father, as I come to You in Jesus I praise You for His name meaning “God saves”. I praise You for your constant, unconditional commitment to me as your child, in covenant with me to bless and to continually save and to provide through all the twists and turns of life.

Life is challenging – You never said it would be otherwise. He makes difficulties and obstacles and ranges them against us. You promise life, and life in abundance. The enemy is constantly attempting to kill, steal and destroy that life. The enemy goes to and fro like a roaring lion seeing who he can devour, and sowing confusion and anxiety.

However, I praise you that tanks and cannons drawn up against me, real enough at first, turn out to be inflatable camouflage as I draw near with You. Your word we find in the Bible, 365 times, one for every day, is “Fear not”.

I am sorry for giving fear and anxiety a place in my thoughts and my life.

I am sorry for taking more notice of that than of Your promises.

I am sorry for believing that the enemy’s schemes are greater than Your purposes working through me.

I am sorry for forgetting so easily that the Greater One, the Holy Spirit, resides in me.

I choose to obey Your command and reassurance to “Fear not”. I give You again the lordship of my life. I put my full trust in You, and in what You have done, in the Bible, in testimonies of others and in my life already – and what You are doing in my life now. I choose to trust You and praise You regardless ofthe evidence.

You are Yahweh Shalom, the God who is Peace, and You are the only one I worship. I come into Your presence, entering freely, because the blood that Jesus shed for me puts on me a righteousness with which I can approach a holy, majestic and just God.

So I say to you Satan and your minions, in the authority I have as a believer, a child of God, a covenanted member of the fellowship, this oppression stops now. I command this storm is to be still,the waves to subside, the wind to die down and all confusion and oppression to cease. As I assert the Lordship of Jesus over my life I call down and loose into my life Jesus’ love, truth, peace, provision and order. I affirm that all authority in heaven and earth is given to Jesus.

Whatever evil assignments are directed against my life___________________ (include others close to you) right now I bind away in the name of Jesus, my Lord, who I love and worship. I take hold of truth and the helmet of salvation for my thought life, the joy of being Yours which is my strength, the knowledge of Your love for me for my soul. I set out to keep walking in this, close to You, Lord Jesus, as I pray this in Your name. AMEN.

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I am a non-denominational ordained Pioneer Minister working with the Church of England, mainly as a Community Pastor available to all in the Weobley and Staunton benefice of Hereford Diocese. I was formerly a Baptist minister and have led a number of churches in different areas. I have been married to Alison for 37 years and we have three grown up children, a paedatrician, a fashion designer and a strategic consultant.
I also publish the TLW Bible Study, online at http://thelivingword.uk
I am involved in neighbourhood Bible studes, training and I take funerals for anyone who wants a Christian faith-based service but with a relational rather than religious feel.

On Jesus’ Track

On Jesus' track
WELCOME to this site. It's about learning to live as a disciple of Jesus, doing life with Jesus but also living in the spiritual maelstrom of the world of work, family, recreation, and travelling. Jesus did all of these things. Jesus WAS Jesus in all of these things. Now He asks us to let other people see Him, in US.
A tall order... but the Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus in our lives, as we open ourselves more and more to Him.
One of the final instructions … more...